Coho fishing

[goatdancer]

Seeing as how things have slowed a bit, I was wondering if anybody fished the Bella Coola River for Coho this fall. How was the water? Any success? Particular time in Sept or Oct? Any Chum then?

Steve

[Rock Doctor]

I was there for about the first week of Oct.
Fishing was POOR, worst I have seen it in the last 15yrs or so. Some of the guys I meet up with there have been going for the last 35yrs, and they also stated that they have never seen it so bad.
Water was low
No Pinks or Chum in the river
Almost no dead pinks along the banks. (normally you can't avoid stepping on the little buggers)
Lots of Grizzly activity. Back and forth, up and down the river looking for something to eat.
Weather was OK, couple days of rain in the middle of the trip.
LOTS and LOTS of Bear Photographers.
Most of the guys I talked to never even "touched" a fish, their whole trip.
Alot of the Parking/Camping spots were full to the hilt with campers.

It was a fun trip though, got to see friends that I only see once a yr.

On the "flip side", I had several friends run up to Haines AK. The rivers there were high, and alot of the fishing holes were "Blown Out". However, there were so many Coho running that they (the Coho) were destroying the spawning beds. I heard that there were so many fish digging and flipping in the shallows, that they cut chanels through the shallows, redirecting the water, making it impossible for them to spread out.
Probably exagerated a bit


RD

[goatdancer]

We were there about three years ago later in Oct and the water was really low then also. Fishing was really tough, not too many people there at that time. The bears were pretty well gone by then. We got a few coho but I did luck into two nice chum, even though it was that late. Would be nice to go back again. Its lots of fun fishing that river.